Curtis Samuel
Ohio State H-back Curtis Samuel carries the ball during Saturday's win at Maryland. Is Samuel actually in the Heisman Trophy conversation?
(Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer)
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Will Curtis Samuel, Ohio State's Brooklyn-bred star, get a homecoming in New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony?
That would be a special story.
You don't find too many players the caliber of Samuel coming out of New York City, let alone one good enough to contend for the Heisman.
Here's a fact about Samuel that we can unequivocally state after 10 games: He's one of the best players in the country. Few possess his ability to hurt you in the run game and the pass game.
"There's not many like that who can do it all," Urban Meyer said Saturday after Samuel posted 112 total yards and three touchdowns in basically one half of a blowout win over Maryland.
Here's something to ponder about Samuel: Does he get the ball enough to actually earn an invite to the Heisman ceremony?
Samuel has been special, the only player in major college football with 600 yards each rushing and receiving, and he's done that touching the ball 13 times per game.
Most think Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson is a lock to win the Heisman, but getting an invite would mean something. Consider that Meyer hasn't had a player get the call in his time at Ohio State despite having a couple legitimate candidates in Braxton Miller (2012), J.T. Barrett (2014) and Ezekiel Elliott (2015).
"I don't really pay too much attention to that," Samuel said. "I just go out there, do what I gotta do on the field, and whatever happens happens."
With 637 rushing yards and 750 receiving yards, Samuel is on pace for a better season than Percy Harvin (the patron saint of H-backs) ever had under Meyer at Florida.
Might a season of 1,000 yards rushing/1,000 yards receiving still be on the table? Only one player in the history of college football at any level has done that, former Villanova running back Brian Westbrook.
That would definitely put Samuel in the Heisman hunt. But can he actually get there?
Ohio State's positioning for the Big Ten Championship took a hit on Saturday, but for the sake of projecting the best possible situation for Samuel, lets put the Buckeyes in Indianapolis. That would give Samuel three more games before Heisman ballots are due on Dec. 5.
He needs 363 rushing yards and 250 receiving yards to reach the 1,000-yard mark in each. Going off his per-carry and per-reception averages, Samuel would need around 45 carries and 19 receptions in the next three games.
That's 21 touches per game, which would be a major deviation from Ohio State's plan for Samuel.
"We've had tight ends before who were kind of dual-purpose guys, but this is a tough one to defend," Meyer said. "He can run inside zone, outside stretch plays, and vertical."
And yet the plan for Samuel is 15 touches per game. They've only gone above that three times, and the number has only reached 20 once, when he had 22 in the season-opener against Bowling Green.
Of course, Samuel doesn't have to get 20 touches per game to reach 1,000/1,000. He's shown he can be explosive on just a handful of touches, and his versatility makes him one of the most dangerous players in college football.
He scored touchdowns on an outside run, a reverse handoff and a 36-yard reception on Saturday.
"That was definitely part of the gameplan," Samuel said, "just put me one-on-one out there with one of their guys and see who comes down with the play."
Samuel usually wins.
There are two ways you can look at Samuel's production if you're a Heisman voter:
1. He only gets the ball 13 times per game and he's still putting up these numbers. You don't need to see him get it 20 times. Nobody does it like Samuel. He's returning punts now? That guy can do it all. You've seen enough to know he's deserving of attention for the most outstanding player in college football.
2. He's a great player, but he's not enough of a focal point of the offense. You look at guys like Jackson, Texas running back D'Onta Foreman (241 carries, 1,613 yards) or San Diego State's Donnel Pumphrey (the nation's leading rusher with 1,779 yards) and wonder what Samuel would be doing if Ohio State would just give its best player the ball more.
If No. 2 ends up being the prevailing thought among the 900-plus Heisman voters, then you can look back at the couple of games where it seemed like Samuel got lost in the offensive shuffle.
He had nine touches and no receptions against Indiana; and had 10 touches with only two rushing attempts in a loss at Penn State. There were multiple games where Ohio State ran 20-plus plays before Samuel touched the ball.
The Buckeyes seem to be back on track with their plan for Samuel, which just happened to coincide with back-to-back 60-point games.
If Samuel routinely got 20 touches per game, this probably wouldn't be a question. But that's not the plan.
With the way Ohio State uses the H-back position, and the cap on touches even for a player like Samuel, it's possible his chance to show he deserves to be in New York has already passed.